“One of life’s best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference.” ~ Robert Fulghum
I found this quote in the blog from Dennis Merritt Jones-author and speaker. This struck a cord with me. How often I do mistake an inconvenience for a problem. Fortunately I am learning to respond thoughtfully as opposed to just immediately reacting. I actually broke a few alarm clocks throwing them across the room because they rang- of course I was much younger. It reminds me of the bell that goes off in my mind when I use the words: never, always, must, can’t, and my personal favorite, should. I know they are just words but when I changed must and should in my mind to I choose to do something, it made a real difference. That old serenity prayer about knowing what you can change and what you can not change is real wisdom. I can only control and change myself and even that gets shaky sometimes. My thought for today. Just in case you think I am getting to serious I offer this prayer on a card my daughter gave to me.

“May those who Love us, truly Love us and those that can’t , May God turneth their hearts.
And if he can’t turn their hearts, May He turn their ankles so that we may know them by their limping.”
http://greatcosmichappyass.com/index.htm